X-Message-Number: 24888 From: "Michael C Price" <> References: <> Subject: living forever: comparison of lifespans? Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2004 20:02:57 +0100 Hi John, rather than try to compare the value of a finite lifespan with an infinite lifespan, I prefer to think of them as different classes of objects: one has an endpoint and the other doesn't, so it doesn't really make much sense to compare them together. It's like trying to compare finite numbers with transfinites: there's not much you can say about such comparisons, except that every transfinite number is bigger than any finite number. The situation becomes more complicated once we start copying ourselves. Instead of world-lines or life-lines we have life-trees. Some branches will terminate and some proliferate endlessly; trying to compare their subjective value becomes even more difficult and perhaps impossible. Some branches may not care about what happens to other branches; other branches may feel an affinity for the whole tree. Cheers, Michael C Price Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=24888